100 Mile Races With the Most Elevation Gain¶

In NavRun's race catalog, Cruel Jewel 100 lists the most climbing at 30,000 feet, then Dark Divide at 26,565, HURT 100 at 24,500, Wasatch Front 100 at 24,000 and High Lonesome 100 at 23,293. Climbing is one number. Surface and altitude change the day as much.

This is a list of facts, not a ladder. A course with 21,000 feet is not an easier hundred than one with 24,000. It is a different one, and the right one is the one you want to spend a day and a night on.

Which 100 mile race has the most elevation gain?¶

These are the eight hundred-mile courses with the most published gain in the catalog, read from the production race catalog on 2026-10-02.

Race	Published gain (feet)
Cruel Jewel 100	30,000
Dark Divide 100	26,565
HURT 100	24,500
Wasatch Front 100	24,000
High Lonesome 100	23,293
Cascade Crest 100	23,000
IMTUF 100	22,000
Grindstone 100	21,003

Two cautions before you plan around it.

First, this is the catalog, not every hundred in the world. A race that is not in it is not on the list. The catalog is at navrun.app/ultras.

Second, the numbers are what each course publishes, and courses measure differently. Dark Divide's own page says over 27,000 feet. High Lonesome's registration page says 23,500. A GPS watch will give you a third figure on race day. Treat the gap between 23,293 and 23,500 as noise. Treat the gap between 30,000 and 21,003 as real.

Cruel Jewel's 2026 runner packet gives the course as 103.9 miles with 30,000 feet of gain and 30,000 of loss, so the top of this list is also a little longer than a hundred.

How much climbing does a mountain 100 have?¶

Six of the eight courses above sit between 21,000 and 24,500 feet. That is the working range for the mountain hundreds on this list. Over a hundred miles, 24,000 feet is an average of 240 feet of gain in every mile, and in practice it is never an average. It arrives as a 4,200-foot climb in the dark at the start of Wasatch, or as five loops of the same ridges at HURT, where the Book of HURT lists 24,500 feet of gain spread over five 19.5-mile loops and a 2.5-mile opener.

Gain also comes with its twin. Cruel Jewel and HURT both publish loss equal to their gain, so the descending is as long as the climbing, and it is the part that wrecks quads. If you want the numbers on that, there is a descent prep post.

What the number leaves out¶

Gain does not tell you where the climbing is, what you are climbing on, or how thin the air is.

Altitude. High Lonesome's own page lists a high point of 13,100 feet. The same 23,293 feet of gain feels different up there than it would at a lower course. A course with less gain near sea level and one with less gain above 12,000 feet are not the same day. There is more on that in the altitude racing post.

Surface. Cruel Jewel's packet counts 91.9 miles of trail and 12 miles of mountain road. The same packet describes steep ascents, even steeper descents, rocks and roots. A smooth climb and a root-tangled climb of the same height do not cost the same, and the gain figure cannot tell them apart.

Where it falls. Wasatch front-loads a 4,200-foot climb in the first four to five miles. Five loops put the same hill in front of you five times, each at a different hour of fatigue. The Wasatch prep post walks through what that start does to the first cutoff.

Time of day. With limits of 36 hours or more, most runners on these courses will meet at least one night. The climbing you do at hour 20 is not the climbing you do at hour 4, and the same hill gets slower after dark. Plan for that when you read a gain number.

How do I train for 25,000 feet of climbing?¶

You train for the shape of the course, not the total. Read the profile, find the longest sustained climb and the longest descent, and build long runs that contain something like both.

• Hike on purpose. Almost nobody runs every step of 24,000 feet. Practice a fast, steady climbing walk on grades where you would otherwise shuffle, and hold it for hours. There is a guide to power hiking for ultras.
• Practice going down. Descents load the quads in a way flat running does not. Introduce downhill work early and in small doses, and build it over weeks. The descent prep post has a six-week protocol.
• Time on feet over vertical totals. If you live somewhere flat, stairs, a treadmill set to incline and long walks with a loaded pack all add hours of climbing-type work. A long slow day is a big day, and a flat long day with hill work inside it still counts.
• Match the altitude if you can. If the course tops out high, any time you can spend there before the start is worth planning. If you cannot, say so to yourself now rather than on the course.

If a descent or a climb brings on a sharp or lingering pain, that is a conversation for a physiotherapist or sports medicine doctor, not for a training plan.

Do mountain hundreds have longer time limits?¶

Not by rule. The limits on these courses run from 36 to 48 hours, and the biggest climbs do not sit at one end.

Race	Overall time limit	Source
HURT 100	36 hours	Book of HURT
Wasatch Front 100	36 hours	Wasatch prep post
High Lonesome 100	37 hours	RunSignUp
Dark Divide 100	48 hours	race page

HURT and Wasatch carry nearly the same climbing and the same 36 hours. Dark Divide gives 48. Each race decides its own, and some of them also set station cutoffs along the way, which can matter more than the finish limit. Read the race's own rules for your year, since limits change. Each course page in the catalog has a Climb row and a Time limit row, so you can set them side by side.

Picking one¶

If you have run a few hundreds and want a mountain one, pick on the part of the number that is about you. Do you want the long grind of Cruel Jewel's gain, or the thin air of High Lonesome, or the same loop five times at HURT? If this is your first hundred, any course on this list is a fair choice, and so is one that is not on it. The list is for finding out what you are curious about.

The course is still the course. You are the one who decides to go meet it.

Look up the one you are thinking about. navrun.app/ultras